Pub­lic hous­ing is­sues need fix­ing

A COM­MU­NITY group has called on Mos­man Park Coun­cil to find longterm so­lu­tions to al­leged crim­i­nal and an­ti­so­cial be­hav­iour as­so­ci­ated with Hous­ing Author­ity units on Welling­ton Street.

At a coun­cil meet­ing held last month, Safety for Mos­man Park con­venor and real es­tate agent Gill Vi­vian said there was a large con­cen­tra­tion of Hous­ing Author­ity units at that end of town and she hoped some could be re­moved.

Last year, a spate of petty crimes in Mos­man Park and ad­join­ing sub­urbs, in­clud­ing in­ci­dents at the units, caused the group to form.

It prompted meet­ings be­tween po­lice, the coun­cil and the Hous­ing Author­ity.

Some ten­ants were moved on or charged, the units were ti­died and po­lice suc­cess­fully tar­geted the area.

Chief ex­ec­u­tive Mark Goodlet said the coun­cil had met with the Hous­ing Author­ity and dis­cussed long-term so­lu­tions to Welling­ton Street last year.

Mr Goodlet said the coun­cil and author­ity had waited for the re­sult of the state elec­tion and the coun­cil was now look­ing for the author­ity to re­turn to talks.

Hous­ing Author­ity ser­vice de­liv­ery gen­eral man­ager Greg Cash said re­de­vel­op­ment of the units had been “very briefly” dis­cussed with the coun­cil.

“This would be a long-term project and will be re­liant on ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Town of Mos­man Park over town plan­ning and zon­ing pro­cesses to en­sure that the op­ti­mum hous­ing and devel­op­ment out­comes can be achieved,” Mr Cash said.